Bob and Willa Friedman have been members of Northern Virginia Photography Society since the fall of 2004.  Bob and his brother had a darkroom at home when they were growing up, while Willa came to photography very suddenly, shortly after Bob and Willa were married.  After graduating from college, Willa was an instructor at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.  She was given a choice of several assignments including such things as cleaning animal cages.  One choice was photographing wildlife in city parks.  She chose the photography and was handed an SLR camera and light meter.  Over the following weekend, Bob taught her enough to have the result published!  So much for formal training.

Bob continued to pursue his hobby with a dark room in their home, and supported the hobby by photographing weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.  Eventually with pressures of work and children the darkroom became a storage closet.  Bob spent his career in computers, much of it in the basement of Pentagon doing “stuff”.  Willa was involved in teaching, retail management and sales and is also retired.

As they approached retirement, and started to have some spare time, they both drifted back into photography and have taken courses in the basics of photography with club members Corey Hilz and Ed Funk, and Photoshop classes with Eliot Cohen.  They are both shooting digital now and use Nikon equipment. 

Bob shoots scenery, wildlife and the grandchildren.  Willa tends to include architecture, city life and wild flowers as well. 

Willa and Bob are waiting for the Pulitzer Prize winning photo (or at least for most of their photos to be properly exposed and in focus).